Existing home sales declined for the third straight month in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.61 million, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Total existing home sales, which include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops, decreased 2.4% from March and 5.9% on a year-over-year basis.
“Higher home prices and sharply higher mortgage rates have reduced buyer activity,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun says. “It looks like more declines are imminent in the upcoming months, and we’ll likely return to pre-pandemic home sales activity after the remarkable surge over the past two years.”
Total housing inventory at the end of April totaled 1,030,000 units, up 10.8% from March but down 10.4% compared with April 2021. Unsold inventory sits at a 2.2-month supply at the current sales pace, up from 1.9 months in March and down from 2.3 months on a year-over-year basis.
“Housing supply has started to improve, albeit at an extremely sluggish pace,” says Yun. “The market is quite unusual as sales are coming down, but listed homes are still selling swiftly and home prices are much higher than a year ago.”
Yun says an increasing number of buyers with “short tenure expectations” could opt for five-year adjustable-rate mortgages, assuring fixed payments over five years. Cash buyers, according to Yun, are not impacted by mortgage rate changes and remain “elevated.”
The median existing home price for all housing types in April was $391,200, up 14.8% year over year, as prices increased in each of the four regions across the U.S. The increase marks 122 consecutive months of year-over-year price increases, according to the NAR.
The NAR says properties typically remained on the market for 17 days in April, level with the number of days in both March 2022 and April 2021. Almost nine in 10 homes sold in April were on the market for less than a month.
First-time buyers were responsible for 28% of sales in April, down from 30% in March and from 31% in April 2021. All-cash sales accounted for 26% of transactions in April, while individual investors or second-home buyers purchased 17% of homes in April.
According to Freddie Mac, the average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage was 4.98% in April, up from 4.17% in March. The average commitment rate across all of 2021 was 2.96%.
Single-family home sales decreased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.99 million in April, down 2.5% from March and down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. The median existing single-family home price was $397,600 in April, up 14.8% on a year-over-year basis.
According to Realtor.com’s Market Trends Report, Miami (+38.3%), Las Vegas (+32.6%), and Orlando, Florida (+30.7%), experienced the largest year-over-year median list price growth in April. Austin, Texas, reported the highest growth in the share of homes that had their prices reduced compared with last year.
Existing home sales increased in two of the four major U.S. regions on a month-over-month basis and decreased in each region on a year-over-year basis.
Existing home sales in the Northeast increased 1.5% in April but decreased 10.7% compared with April 2021. The median price in the region rose 8.1% year over year to $412,000.
The Midwest experienced month-over-month existing home sales growth of 3.1%. On a year-over-year basis, sales in the region decreased by 1.5%. The median price in the Midwest was $282,000, an 8.7% increase from April 2021.
Existing home sales in the South decreased by 4.6% in April and by 5.7% compared with April 2021. The median price in the region increased 22.2% year over year to $352,100.
In the West, existing home sales declined by 5.8% compared with the previous month and decreased 8.1% compared with April 2021. The median price in the region was $523,000, a 4.3% increase on a year-over-year basis.
